My Small Corner

Reading Roundup

I've been going through a large amount of books recently.  The Husband has been picking out ones he thinks I might like out of the new fiction section of the library.  Generally, he has done well at choosing them.

Reading

Cutting across a parking lot on my way to the library when I was stopped by a friend.  They wanted to know where I was going and I explained how I was working my way through an eighteen book series, showing her the one I was going to trade in.

All Apologies

"Forgive me.  I don't mean to get upset.  But you are taking my world away from me, piece by little piece, and sometimes it just pisses me off.  Sorry."

Bill Bryson
"The Lost Continent"

Chip Off The Old Block

Eldest Child told me about a new project he and some classmates are working on.  They have formed a book club.  They plan on reading two chapters a week in a chosen book and will meet during Thursday recesses to discuss it.  First up is "Class Clown".

Bag 'O Women's Fiction Round 2

This is a long one.

Every day I try to think of something I might like to photograph for the 365 photo project.  I carry the camera around all day and snap things of interest but it helps if I have an idea first - particularly for those days where I'm completely uninspired.

Too Simplistic

From the book I've been reading, a conversation between a 27-year-old man and a 16-year-old girl discussing how to get back at someone who was causing a lot of trouble:

Holidays In Hell

There are few books that I enjoy so much that I can't put them down.  The list gets smaller when you count those that not fictional and even smaller still when you narrow it down to 20 year-old political commentary.

"Holidays In Hell" by P.J. O'Rourke was so good that I am going to have to track down more of his stuff.  He is like Bill Bryson on national or political turmoil.  O'Rourke traveled the globe in the mid to late 80's, spending time in the worst unrest and most awful locations - from South Africa under apartheid to Epcot Center.

The way he tells of his experiences mix dry wit and sad observations.  No one is safe.  And it is funny, even twenty years later.  I mean to the point where I had to endure all kinds of funny looks as I laughed out loud in medical offices. 

I was terribly sorry to see this book end.  And I already have a waiting list for people who want to borrow it.

Finding Moon

As a fan of Tony Hillerman's Navajo Police series of books, I was pretty excited to stumble across a copy of "Finding Moon".  It is a stand-alone book, set at the time of the American withdrawal from Vietnam.

Nature Noir

"Nature Noir" is the story of a park officer (the author - Jordan Fisher Smith) while working in Auburn State Recreation Area, in CA.  The subtitle of the book is "A Park Ranger's Patrol in the Sierra", which is what I thought the book was - stories and experiences about being a ranger in a nationally protected area.

The Bridges of Madison County

My mom gave me this one to read and I've never seen the movie.  I have little to say about the book other than there seems to be a theme in women's fiction where bored housewives really think their lives would be better with a total stranger rather than their husbands.  And even if they can't spend the rest of their lives with that stranger, their lives would be so much better for just having had the memory of it.  For more on my opinion on that, see my post on "Night In Rodanthe".